Mother Teresa

Talk to the UN-women conference 1995

Dear Friends

I pray for Gods' blessing for all of you who take part in the 4th World women conference in Peking. I hope that this conference will help everybody to recognize the special place of the women in Gods' plan, to love and to respect, so that they may fulfil Gods' plan with their lives.

I do not understand why some people say that men and women are exactly the same and deny the beautiful differences between men and women. All gifts of God are good, but they are not all the same.

As I have told before to people who tell me that they would like to serve the poor as I do:

"What I do, you cannot do. What you do, I cannot do. But together
we can do something beautiful for God."

Like that it is with the difference between man and woman. God created each one of us, every human being, for great things - to love and to be loved. But why God made some of us man and other woman? Because the love of the woman and the love of the man are each a different image of Gods' love. Both are made for love, but they love each in a different way. Woman and man are complement to each other and together they witness Gods' love better, than they would being alone.

The special strength in a womans' love becomes clear when she becomes a mother. Motherhood is Gods' gift to a woman. How grateful should we be for this tremendous gift which gives such a great joy to the whole world, both women and men. We can however destroy the gift of motherhood through the evil of abortion. But also by thinking that other things like a job or a function are more important than love, than to give ourselves away to others. No job, no plans, no possession, no 'idea' of freedom can replace love. Everything that destroys the gift of motherhood, destroys also the most precious gift to a woman: the capacity to love as a woman.

God told us: "love they neighbour as thyself". So I have to learn to love myself in the right way and then I have to learn to love my neighbour. But how can I love myself if I cannot accept myself the way God created me? Those who deny the wonderful differences between men and women do not accept themselves the way God created them and they cannot love their neighbour therefor. They will only bring divorce, hatred and destruction of peace in the world.

For example, as I said many times, abortion is the biggest destroyer of peace in the actual world and those who proclaim the equality of men and women are for abortion.

Instead of death and sorrow, we have to bring joy and peace to the world. We have to beg God for His gift of peace and we have to learn to love each other and to accept each other as brothers and sisters, children of God. We know that the best place for children to learn to love and pray is the family, because they see the love and prayers of their father and mother. When families get broken or divorced, many children grow up without learning how to love and how to pray. A country where many families are destroyed like this country here, will have many problems. I have seen many times in rich countries how children want drugs or other things to escape the feeling of being unloved and unwanted.

But when our families are strong and united, children can see Gods' special love in their father and mother and they can grow as to make their country a place full of love and prayer. A child is Gods' most beautiful gift to a family and it needs both mother and father because they show Gods' love each in their own special way. A family that prays, stays together. And when they stay together they will love each other like God loves each one of them. And works of love are works of peace.

Let us keep in our hearts the joy of love and share these joy with everyone whom we meet. My prayer for all the delegations and for every woman for whom this conference wants to be a help, is that they may be humble and pure like Mary, so that they can live in love and peace with each other and so that they can make from our families and our world something beautiful for God.